28 GOETHE ON THE METAMORPHOSIS OF PLANTS. 
leaflets, resembling in all respects those which the rose-branches pro- 
duce at their nodes. 
XVI. A Proliferous Pink. 
105. We have in this proliferous Pink a perfect flower, with a calyx 
and a double corolla, and in the centre a somewhat imperfect capsule. 
From the sides of the corolla,* four other perfect flowers are developed, 
separated from the parent-flower by stalks of three nodes or more in 
length. Each of these has also a calyx and a double corolla ; formed, 
not so much of separate (typical) leaves, as of a crown of (typical) 
leaves, with the petioles united ; or rather of a series of (typical) flower- 
leaves developed around an axis and united on a little branch. Not- 
withstanding this monstrous development, the filaments and anthers 
are sometimes present. In some the capsules are produced with their 
styles ; in others the capsule is leaf-like, or rather like a calyx, and con- 
tains the rudiments of another double corolla.+ 
106. In the Rose we have, as it were, a half finished flower, from 
the centre of which the stem again shoots upwards, bearing stem-leaves 
as before; in this Pink, with a well-formed calyx and a perfect corolla, 
and a capsule situated in the very centre, we have buds developed within 
the circle of the petals, producing actual branches and blossoms. Thus, 
both instances lead us to the conclusion, that nature ordinarily termi- 
nates the period of growth in the blossom, and so, as it were, closes her 
account, that by thus preventing the possibility of gradual and inde- 
finite growth, she may arrive at her object by a shorter way in the 
formation of the seed. 
XVII. Linneus's Theory of Anticipation. 
107. If I have sometimes stumbled in a path which one of my pre- 
decessors, though exploring it under the guidance of his great master, 
* Query, From the receptacle within the corolla ? 
+ Thé Pink described in this paragraph seems to be the same as that mentioned by 
Goethe, in his history of his botanical studies, as having greatly contributed to develope 
the fundamental idea of the metamorphosis of plants. At § 75 is a good description 
of the most usual kind of proliferous Pink, of which numerous instances are cited by 
Moguin-Tandon, ‘lératologie Vegetale,’ p. 366. M. Gingins-Lassaraz cites, as an 
illustration of this present paragraph, the case of Dianthus prolifer ; but the descrip- 
tion given by G does not correspond to that flower. 
A Pink affected with axillary prolification, and figured in my paper on axillary 
bed ‘by Goethe. 
lification before cited, seems to ble th a 
Bue also the Plate, Vig. 9, 9a. resemble. closely the one deseri 
